HOT-AIR STOVE.

Still the trade made but slow progress, and it was not until the following century that it attainedanything like its present importance. The manufacturers were men of small means: they were withoutwater-conveyance to either Hull or Liverpool; pack-horses were the usual means of transit for their heavygoods, and the export trade, which has since grown up, was altogether unknown amongst them. Socialand mechanical improvements, however, with increased intelligence and energy in the manufacturers, graduallyextended the staple productions of the town; and in 1742 a fresh element was introduced, in the discovery,by Thomas Bolsover, an ingenious local mechanic, of the method of producing “ plated” articles, by incorporatinga thin plate of silver with the surface of an ingot of copper (or copper and brass), and then rolling themass into a sheet, from which any description of goods might be formed, as in sheet-silver. The admirableand economical imitations of silver vessels thus produced soon acquired immense popularity; and the inven-tion was extensively carried out by Joseph Hancock, a Sheffield manufacturer, who attained considerableeminence. To Mr. Hancock and Mr. Jessop we may also mainly ascribe the introduction of what is knownas Prince’s, or more commonly Britannia metal (called by the workmen, white metal). The extreme cheap-ness, lightness, ductility, and beauty of effect of this substance, at once brought it into general estimation;

and it is now used to an enormous extent in the formation of tea-pots, coffee-pots, candlesticks, spoons,

salvers, &c. From the nature of the metal, many articles may be produced in it by stamping; and the stampsemployed may be made of cast-iron, or even brass, whereas costly engraved steel dies are necessary forstamping brass or plated goods. Into these and some other technical details, both of the steel and platetrade, we hope to enter hereafter, and we must close our present notice with a bare allusion to some of thenumerous improvements subsequently introduced. The employment of “ solid silver edges,” as they are termed,

for the more prominent portions of plated goods, obviated the objections to which the metal itself was liable,

from its weakness in such situations, and from the silver surface being gradually rubbed off; and in theyear. 1831 a further improvement was introduced by Mr. Roberts of Sheffield, who, by a patent process,interposed a layer of white copper, or German silver, between the inferior metal and the silver; thereby addingmuch to the permanent beauty of plated goods. In the more substantial manufactures of the locality, thegreatest triumph was achieved in 1786, by William Dunn, who first applied steam-power to the large grindingmills, in which one of the most important operations in cutlery is performed. Steam has since been appliedto many of the preliminary processes of converting iron into steel; though the streams which first contributedto promote the trade of the district are still largely employed in working its machinery. The populationof Sheffield has increased from less than 46,000 in 1801, to about 130,000 at the date of the last census.

We may here advert to the interesting fact, that, from the earliest periods till a comparatively recent date,the principal supply of British iron was derived from the southern part of England, and not, as now, fromStaffordshire and the north. Mr. M. A. Lower* has given a copious account of the extinct iron-works ofSussex, referring to the sites of nearly one hundred different smelting-furnaces and forges. Innumerable fieldsof iron scoriee still mark these localities; and, from the large number of Roman coins and fragments of potteryfound in these cinder-beds, Mr. Lower infers that the works were carried on from the reign of Vespasian , orhis successor Titus, to that of Diocletian . Although inactive for some centuries afterwards, the works weresubsequently resumed. “Henry of Lewes” executed the iron-work on the tomb of Henry III . In the reign ofthat king the town of Lewes was allowed to take a toll from all carts laden with iron from the Weald ofSussex, and there are many curious records of the local iron-trade in subsequent reigns. The mansions andchurches of the county abound with andirons, ornamental chimney-backs, and monumental slabs of iron,dating from the fifteenth to the end of the seventeenth century. There are no less than thirty iron monumentsin the church of Wadhurst alone. Cannons made of iron-staves, hooped and banded together, are supposedto have been made in Sussex in the fourteenth century; and Holinshed records, that the first cast-iron cannonswere also produced in the same county in 1543. The cast-iron railings of St. Paul’s Cathedral were the produceof Lamberhurst in Sussex.

The fuel employed in this district for smelting the ore was derived from the extensive forests of theWeald (the Coit Andred of the Britons). In the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, legislative restrictionswere imposed on the destruction of the forest-timber from this cause, and the erection of new iron-workswas prohibited. Eventually, about a century ago, the scarcity and cost of fuel led to the extinction of theSussex iron-works..

* In. the “ Sussex Archeological Collections/’ published by the Sussex Archeol. Assoc. 8vo. vol. ii. p. 1G9; vol. iii. p. 240.